Re: new to this...please help to Tara

[Guest guest]

Dear Tara,

Are they sure it's acute and not chronic? With episodes

reoccuring that frequently, I would imagine that the diagnosis will

soon change. No matter, the advice I'm going to suggest is for

chronic pancreatitis, and if you are having attacks that close

together, you would benefit best from treating this as a chronic

condition anyway as far as what you should be doing right now.

Has your gastroenterologist given you enzyme supplements to

take with all your meals and snacks? Those should help with

the pain. Another thing that many of us do when faced with back

to back episodes of pain is to go to a diet of liquids only, to give

the pancreas a chance to rest. Whenever I had a bad attack, I

would immediately stop eating and only take liquid nourishment,

such as water, ginger ale, water, tea, water, gatorade....and then

some jello or yogurt (if you're not lactose intolerant). I would do

this for a day or two until my pain had reduced.

You said that you've been following a low fat diet. When you eat,

a recommended CP diet should be no more than 20-25 grams

of fat daily, with no more than about 6 grams at each meal. It is

also recommended that a person with CP eat six times a day,

smaller meals than the customarily three large meals per day.

Have a light breakfast, a healthy snack around 10, a light lunch,

another good snack around 2-3, then a moderate portioned

dinner, and another snack before bed. This grazing, nibbling at

frequent periods throughout the day seems to work much better

for most people with CP.

Another suggestion I would make is that you might wish to

consider pancreatic antioxidants. I take them, have been for

almost two years, and I truly believe that they've done their best to

keep my pain episodes at a minimum. They aren't a cure,

certainly, but I had alcohol induced acute pancreatitis, and then

chronic pancreatitis, and they helped me very well through the

first year or so. My pancreas just kept deteriorating anyhow,

which nothing could prevent, but at least the antioxidants

seemed to make the pain episodes less freguent and less

severe. I would be happy to print again all the information on

antioxidants for you.

This is all I can think of for right now. Perhaps one of our other

members will have some more encouragement or suggestions

for you. I will say that each attack causes the pancreas much

irritation and anger, and that it takes some time to settle down.

With yours being so frequent, it's not getting much time to do

this. I hope you feel better soon.

With hope and prayers,

Heidi

Heidi H. Griffeth

South Carolina

SC & SE Regional Rep.

PAI, Intl.

Note: All comments and advice are personal opinion only, and

should not be substituted for professional medical consultation.

> I'm new to this. I haven't been diagnosed with chronic

pancreatitis but I'm having attacks of acute pancreatitis about

every two weeks.

I'm following a low fat diet, I'm not drinking any alcohol (and

haven't been for over 6 months), I'm no longer taking estrogen,

but I'm still experiencing constant episodes of acute pancreatitis.